The Kings were one of 22 teams chosen to play in the NBA’s restart, which begins in a couple of weeks in Orlando, Florida. The Kings are currently 3.5 games behind Memphis for the eighth seed and could make the playoffs if they can play how they did before the season was suspended.
That will hinge not only on how De’Aaron Fox and Buddy Hield play, but also how Kings head coach Luke Walton utilizes second-year big man Marvin Bagley. This past weekend, Walton was asked about where does the former Duke standout fit on the court and responded by saying that Bagley is a position-less player.
“We see Marvin as a player that, down the road, is going to be pretty much a position-less type of basketball player,” Walton said. “For now, and getting him back, we got him getting most of his reps at the five and the four.”
Richard Ivanowski of The Sacramento Bee disagrees with Walton’s assessment and opines that Bagley should be considered a center or big man. Ivanowski points out that the former second overall pick struggles to shoot from three-point range (28.8%) and is not someone who can initiate the offense. Instead, Bagley is better around the rim and is an adequate defensive rebounder.
Here’s more from around the Pacific Division:
- Clippers guard Terance Mann, who is the team’s NBPA rep, told reporters on Tuesday that the players’ decision to play was “a pretty long process,” per ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk (Twitter link). The Clippers, who will be back in action on July 30 against the Lakers, had several Zoom conversations about the restart before deciding to participate, Mann said.
- Mann also told reporters that he is back to full contact after undergoing hand surgery in March, according to Jovan Buha of The Athletic (Twitter link).
- Anthony Slater and John Hollinger of The Athletic discussed the current state of the Lakers and where they’ll go from here. The Athletic duo talked about how Los Angeles did in free agency last summer, what to do with Kyle Kuzma (who is eligible for an extension this offseason), and Anthony Davis‘ future.
- According to Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register (Twitter link), veteran forward Markieff Morris, who has an excused absence, is expected to join the Lakers soon in Disney World.
It’s hard to justify giving Kuzma an extension when the season is over after he suffered so much regression since his promising rookie season. After shooting close to 37% from three in 2018 he has been awful shooting 30% last season and just below 30% this year. Kuzma may be a better defender than Melo, but not enough to make him worth paying anything close to top dollar to keep around.
It is well known that LeBron makes his teammate stats worse.
Look at Kevin Love and Chris Bosh stats.
40% worse?
And even though his current team hasn’t participated in the postseason in 7 years, and hasn’t won a single playoff game in 8 years, and is finally on the verge of winning 50 games for the first time in 9 years, yet somehow people think the Lakers should be favored to beat anyone they face in the playoffs just because LeBron James is the GOAT (even though it’s actually Jordan).
Are you purposely being dense or is just you? Really wonder sometimes!
You see BOS went from the worst team in the league to champions in 2008, why? Because they added KG.
Now, AD is a far better player than KG ever was, KG joint BOS when he was already declining, meanwhile AD is in his prime & with LBJ in the team to boot!
Now if you can’t see why LAL are the favorites, hoops ain’t your thing buddy!
Stick to not knowing anything about the Crockets.
Clippers are favorites to me. Deeper bench and deeper team. Lakers will have it tough with Denver if no virus. If they fall to 4. But I see an all LA west finals. Really no home court. Clippers in 6